For over 10 years, IT security professional Anthony Lee Winns Jr. has worked for firms based in Washington, D.C. Anthony Lee Winns Jr. specializes in cybersecuritiy and is a certified member of the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC2).
Besides setting industry-wide standards for professional ethics, ISC2 monitors trends and collects data from the cybersecurity sector. ISC2 investigates diversity in the cybersecurity workforce and releases its finding in its annual Global Information Security Workforce Study report.
In 2018, ISC2 included metrics to measure ethnic and racial diversity. The latest report drew its data from the responses of over 9,500 cybersecurity professionals. The study found that the cybersecurity workforce is slightly more diverse than the American workforce average. Participants cited mentorship programs as the most effective way to promote diversity in the cybersecurity field.
However, there are measurable discrepancies in the number of ethnic minorities in management positions and annual salaries. For example, women from minority backgrounds are paid much less than their peers, with the largest gap in annual salaries measuring $10,000.
